The Sound of Psychedelic Doom

Hazemaze

Lord Cubensis

Master Of The Sky

Swedish psychedelic doom band Kingnomad is very much a product of the riffs that inspired them. 

Initially formed in 2014 by best friends Jay and Marcus while hanging out in Jay’s studio basement jamming on Black Sabbath grooves and downing bottomless beers, the pair soon stumbled onto a riff of their own making. Over the space of one evening evolved the song ‘Lucifer Is Dead’, and with that one track followed a newfound purpose.

Setting off on a quest to forge music from the influence of hard and heavy 70s rock, psychedelic flights of fancy and the hauntingly ethereal worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, the main driving force behind Kingnomad was to have as much fun as possible. Recruiting the only two people that they knew were qualified enough to orchestrate a killer rhythm section, into the fold came Andreas on drums and Maximilian on bass.

With the quartet retreating back to Jay’s basement – newly christened the “The Room of Doom” – material flowed like a never-ending stream of occult energy. Songs were written, parts recorded and almost as if by magic they found themselves propelled forward in time, primed and ready to release what they had created. Closely courted by Ripple Music they were asked last year to contribute to Chapter III in the label’s ongoing underground series The Second Coming of Heavy, with Michigan rockers Bonehawk. And with the alchemy of creativity burning fervently in their minds, a new batch of original songs were recorded for their debut album soon after.

Officially released next month via Ripple Music, Kingnomad will unleash that very album, Mapping The Inner Void, on 24 February 2017.

Mapping The Inner Void

Kingnomad - 'Nameless Cult' (Ripple Music)

The Black Code

Lost Highway

Hailing from Borås, Sweden’s ‘City of Rain’ and formed in 2015 out of the ashes of adrift stoner rock band Creedsman Arise, Vokonis will release their follow up to last year’s critically acclaimed Olde One Ascending this June on the Californian label Ripple Music.

Entitled The Sunken Djinn, for the Swedish doom trio – featuring guitarist/vocalist Simon Ohlsson, drummer Emil Larsson and bassist Jonte Johansson – this album marks a huge leap forward in sound and scope. Still loosely rooted in traditional stoner rock with enough lumbering fuzz riffs and monolithic grooves to keep you in a permanent fug of mystification, this time around their entire approach is tempered by an even darker psychedelic perspective. As best heard on the album’s epic title track, which consists of two parts sonic tapestry and one part bloodied ten-ton hammer.

Following countless appearances in the Underground’s essential heavy directory The Doom Charts and frequent “Next Big Thing” mentions in end of year lists, Vokonis’ The Sunken Djinn should mark the arrival of Sweden’s next great hard rock and heavy metal export.

King Vokonis, rightful heir to the stoner doom throne? Time will tell.

The Sunken Djinn (LP) by Vokonis is released on 9th June on Ripple Music and will be preceded by their brand new single ‘The Sunken Djinn’, released on 7” vinyl on 13th May.

The Sunken Djinn

Vokonis - 'The Sunken Djinn' (Ripple Music)

From the album Everything Out of Tune, out Friday, October 13. Recorded by Steve Albini. Features Sacha Dunable of Intronaut on guitar.

Lyrics:
Rattle me so
Rid em and go
Disguising enemy
a Wraith so pastured 
Dons a riddle-me-site

A row
Glass bones smash box
Inchworm cord aux
Pastor cock sox
So much was promised
So much was promised to me

Pass Sycophant way 
Count prizes 
One of these old souls
(Sitting in the way)
And counting his Teeth
Nine thousand 
Most of them old gold 
Grinning at his luck
I eye eyes (sunken from memory (sitting in the back))
When he went sleep
Drilled all of them one at time pulled
Now he just pretends

Swing high Iodine
Swing high cyanide 
Bullets aren’t cheap
Spirit centerfold 
God just bless the fools
Nonesuch
Center infinite
Cancer killed the rat 
Cradle infamy, steal some pills to sleep
Now you donate to rape-y charity

Send us some episodes
They think for me
Just got a little distracted at
Grabbing moneyman
That soul is quite a set of legs
They summon sex and the cold
Resentment from rejected whites 
Scoop rifles and kill to fill that hole

Pass Sycophant way 
Count prizes 
One of these old souls
(Sitting in the way)
And counting his Teeth
Nine thousand 
Most of them old gold 
Grinning at his luck
I eye eyes (sunken from memory (sitting in the back))
When he went sleep
Drilled all of them one at time pulled
Now he just pretends more

C’mon jaw c’mon jaw you’re almost there

Trauma (Maybe I'm Forgetting Something)

From the album Everything Out of Tune, out Friday, October 13. Recorded by Steve Albini.

Lyrics:
Come and see all the rage
Better show couldn’t be expected
Networked harder than all those evolved
Bitterness takes hold
Ripped away my youth
Currency delivered with a bow

Take a bow
Raise a stage
But just for us
I can see that red door in your
Label gown
Just one more sordid out 
Of all the wailing 
And the drone intentions
Ever-gaping red door in your head

Stole my magic
Hard work pageants
With non-combatants
Sold you whole

I suppose you don’t know

Take a bow
Raise a stage
But just for us
I can see that red door in your
Label gown
Just one more sordid out 
Of all the wailing 
And the drone intentions
Ever-gaping red door in your head

Everything Is Out Of Tune (My Only Victories are Others' Failures)

Thank you for talking. I can see clearly...

Dexter's Lab

"Lousiana's Forming the Void is one of stoner metal's best-kept secrets. Last year's Relic was a potent blend of sludge, stoner and prog, accentuated by phenomenal songwriting and damn-near radio-friendly tunes that put most radio rock to shame." - Aaron (Metal Injection) www.metalinjection.net/av/full-album-stream/forming-the-void-channel-the-classics-on-new-album-rift 

"Forming The Void are set to crush all-comers with this follow-up to their much-lauded third album Relic. Immense, imperious and armed with megaton riffs, Rift is an admirable sequel to the genre expansions of Relic and a major step forward in terms of production. There's nothing quite as odd as their sludgy cover of Kashmir this time round, but in Extinction Event, Ark Debris and glacial 10-minute closer Shrine and the rest they've created an album that ranges from shamanic atmospherics to vast, tectonic bruisers, all the while twisting the archetypal 
stoner sound to their own nefarious ends."-Essi Berelian (Classic Rock Magazine) 

"Rift is a different album to Relic. It may have similar sounds and ideas. However Rift takes you on a more personal and spiritual journey. The production on Rift is simply first rate. With the album sounding fresh and super heavy from the start.Relic made me a fan of Forming The Void's music. However Rift has made Forming The Void become one of my favourite bands. Rift will be considered as one of the best albums of the year. Simply unmissable." - Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun) 
outlawsofthesun.blogspot.com/2018/07/forming-void-rift-album-review.html 

"Mountain-like riffs are propelled by the rhythm section – unstoppable bastards with searing solos that get the neck muscles working overtime. Cleanish vocals drenched in reverb float to the front of everything which ties in nicely with the psychedelic passages that weave in and out of the sonic prayers being offered here." -Tony Maim (Stoner HiVe) 
formingthevoid.bandcamp.com/edit_album?id=2696210395 

"You like riffs? You like soaring melody? You like a bit of space-talk with your riffs and melody? You like albums with a mammoth flying out of a volcano on the cover? Then you’ve come to the right place: step right up and witness Rift."- Matt Butler (Echoes and Dust) www.echoesanddust.com/2018/08/forming-the-void-rift/ 

"I’m sorry, but any record that starts with a song called “Extinction Event” is telegraphing its heaviness. And sure enough, Rift is the most weighted offering yet in the relatively brief but prolific tenure of Louisiana four-piece Forming the Void." - JJ Koczan (The Obelisk) theobelisk.net/obelisk/2018/07/27/forming-the-void-rift-review-premiere/ 

"Turns out that there’s room for a little bit more worship of The Good Riff after all. Of course, by “a little bit more,” I really mean “packed full” of The Good Riff, as Rift takes no shortcuts in terms of hooking the listener with them." -Grymm (Angry Metal Guy) www.angrymetalguy.com/forming-the-void-rift-review/

Extinction Event

“The classic sensibility practically bleeds from the speakers of Kelly Carmichael‘s new solo album – It’s a return to form because it’s heavy, it’s something new because it’s a different take on heavy, and it’s something old because that take on heavy is based in large part on the formative period of the style.”
JJ KOCZAN, THE OBELISK

This October will see the official worldwide release of Heavy Heart, the third solo album from former Pentagram guitarist and Internal Void lynchpin, Kelly Carmichael.

Originally hailing from Frederick, Maryland, Carmichael – who now writes, records and resides in Shepherdstown, West Virginia – first formed the cult quartet back in 1987 with friends Eric Little, Adam Heinzmann and J.D. Williams. Releasing their debut album Standing on the Sun in 1992, Internal Void’s second offering, Unearthed, was subsequently released on Greg Anderson’s much-celebrated Southern Lord Recordings (2000). While serving as Internal Void’s lone guitarist, in 2004 Carmichael also recorded with the legendary Pentagram for their sixth studio album, Show 'Em How, before closing out a thrilling trilogy of Internal Void albums with 2004’s Matricide, released on his own label, Dogstreet Records.

Fast forward to 2019 and Carmichael returns, not only sporting a stunning new album but a playing style to galvanise the riffs locked within:

“I hope the listener can appreciate the more colourful aspects throughout this record, but mostly I hope they’ll find it pleasingly heavy,” explains Carmichael. “The inception of Heavy Heart began with the ‘dream-inspired’ song ‘Shadows Will’. After this dream while still in bed I had the intro and the first verse written. While not at all fitting with the current batch of songs I was working on, I decided to write an entire album around it.”

Influenced as much by the delicate intricacies of King Crimson as it is the iron first of Black Sabbath, Heavy Heart and new single ‘Shadows Will’, matches the spirt of 70s hard-rock with the doom and fury of proto-metal, to transcend those traditional dimensions which have come to shape our contemporary view of voluminous music. Imbedded with deep-rooted blues and interwoven with the classical accompaniments of piano and violin, it successfully brings together every aspect of Carmichael’s playing and proficiencies as a songwriter. Taking in the heady days of Internal Void, his experiences of playing alongside venerated masters, and even a period in his career where Carmichael recorded two albums of pre-war era Delta/Chicago blues (Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Blind Blake) on Old Stock (2005) and Queen Fareena (2008), featuring Jean-Paul Gaster of Clutch on drums.

Featuring friend and percussionist Jesse Shultzaberger (The Woodshedders, Ginada Piñata, former-Deep Swell) on drums and a host of guest musicians, Heavy Heart by Kelly Carmichael is officially released worldwide on 11th October 2019 through Dogstreet Records and will be distributed by Plastic Head Distribution (Europe).

Heavy Heart

Desires Tragedy

Kelly Carmichael - 'Desires Tragedy' (Dogstreet Records)

Groovy

Drowning on Empty

Abyssal Trip

Lake

Formed in 2013 in Lafayette, Louisiana, Forming The Void have not only become one of the city’s most talked about heavy rock bands, they are now widely considered to be a dominant and rising force in the genre. A sound that summons the towering hard rock riffs and the progressive influence of bands like Mastodon, Baroness and Torche.  less

Extinction Event

Forming The Void

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